


Entscheidungen

by orphan_account



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Accidental Voyeurism, Age Difference, Alternate Universe, Anal Sex, Barely Legal, Bisexuality, Blowjobs, Bondage, Cheating, Coming of Age, Crushes, Developing Relationship, Dry Humping, F/F, F/M, Facials, Fingering, Frottage, Growing Up, Heterosexuality, Homosexuality, Kinks, Lesbianism, M/M, Masturbation, Multi, Non-Consensual Spanking, Oral Sex, Porn, Puppet Fetish, Smuppets, Smut, Spanking, Swearing, Underage Drinking, Yaoi, Yuri
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-06-07
Updated: 2014-01-08
Packaged: 2017-12-14 06:18:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 20,295
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/833709
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After catching John Egbert and who he assumes is John's girlfriend in a rather hot and compromising position, Bro Strider finds himself thinking about John more and more. Luckily for him, Dave is more than happy to bring John and his friends to hang out in the Strider apartment.  Maybe he can get to know John better, and maybe John won't be an asshole who's a complete tease about how he really feels about him.</p><p> </p><p>Meanwhile Dave is trying to be a better person than he used to be. He's got a sweet girlfriend, is an Honors Student, and volunteers at a local hospital. Too bad his developing friendship with the girl who frequents the hospital might be damaging his relationship with his girlfriend.</p><p>On hiatus.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. ==> Bro: Watch

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry for the lame set up. I promise it gets better than this.

This is weird. No, not weird. What’s the word you’re looking for? Fuck if you know. Something’s just off about the whole thing, and you wonder what it is. It’s unnerving to not know just what about this situation is bothering you when you’re usually so aware of your surroundings. Hmm. Maybe it would work if you changed something? Yes. That might work.

 

Adjusting a couple of the smuppets positions on the futon to make them more lewd does the trick, and now everything seems a lot better; or at least, not as off as it felt a few minutes prior. You’ve got a few smuppets set up for a smuppet orgy scene for the site. These are the newer models, smoother fabric, more streamlined in their bodies so they’re narrower with curved spines. They are basically smuppets 2.0. You have spent a long time perfecting the designs of these guys, and now you plan on showing them off to the frequent visitors of your site via a video of them in an orgy of slim but still plush where it counts smuppets.

 

Everything’s set up. The innocuous white-bluish backdrop which is really just your bed sheet tacked up behind the futon on the wall behind the futon where you moved it. The smuppets are all in the positions you want them to be, and if need be you can move them with your flash stepping to simulate puppet sex. Your customers still have no clue how you achieve such realistic smuppet porn. If only they knew the joys of flash stepping. Dave is out doing volunteer work with his girlfriend Jade at some hospital. He should be out and about for a while, giving you plenty of time to film what you need to film for the site.

 

The cameras in the house are running, but then, they are always running, streaming video to the site. You’ve set up four cameras around the futon to document your latest work. These aren’t streaming, because like other set up videos you’ll want to edit your work before putting it on the site. These cameras are positioned to get the best angles. You’ve been setting things up for a while now, and you’re ready to turn the four cameras on and begin filming.

 

It’s Saturday, May eleventh, four-thirty-five p.m. It’s hot and sunny outside like it always is, and you are a thirty-eight year old man wearing a white t-shirt and black sweatpants and grey socks, working from home about to shoot a smuppet sex scene. You don’t think this is what your guidance counselor in tenth grade had in mind when she told you to be all you could be. But hey, you’re happy. You’re rich and you work from home doing what you love. Half an hour ago you had pizza rolls and ice cream sandwiches for lunch. Yup, living the dream.

 

There’s a loud rattling at the door. You know it’s not Dave, he isn’t due back for hours, and he isn’t the type to rattle doors he could easily unlock quietly. You aren’t expecting anyone to come over; you haven’t had guests of your own in…ever. Even before Dave came around you were an introvert who never talked to anyone unless you wanted or needed something. You are at a complete loss as to who could be trying to unlock your door.

 

 

The door is swung open with the force of two bodies, not one, fumbling their way into your apartment. Luckily they don’t see you; they’re too involved in each other to be aware of their surroundings. You flash step away to a closet, leaving the door cracked open a bit because you are curious to see where this is going. You’re confident if they tried anything like destroying your apartment or robbing you that you’d have them both incapacitated within seconds so for now as they make out fiercely in your living room not causing property damage or theft, you’re content to watch what will happen next.

 

You recognize one of the two persons engaged in sloppy make outs. A male, young, but not too young. He’s slim of build and tall of height, much like Dave. Unlike Dave this one’s got messy black hair that’s sticking up all over the place. You feel that maybe the girl who’s running her hands through it might be a factor in its messiness. He’s got smooth, clear skin, the color of cream. It isn't fair. You’re pretty sure teenagers are supposed to be acne riddled messes for a few years. That’s how you were when you were whatever age he’s supposed to be.

 

He’s got black framed glasses that are square shaped and vaguely remind you of hipsters. You can see he’s wearing a dark green long sleeved shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows that’s layered over a black t-shirt with a design of something on it that you can’t quite make out. He’s got dark blue jeans on that are a bit tighter on him than they probably should be. Not that you noticed or anything. You have to admit his shoes are cool. They’re sneakers that are red, yellow and orange, and evoke the image of flames and rockets.

 

You know this kid, you are sure of that. Wait no, not kid. This is a teenager. A teenager making out with who you assume is his girlfriend. In your apartment, and you’re still not sure how they got in. How do you know him? You feel like you’ve seen him before. He must be one of Dave’s friends. You don’t have any friends under the age of thirty. You’re starting to remember now, he’s Dave’s best friend, the one he met online, the one who inexplicably moved to Texas along with his other friends. He’s the one who used to come over to your apartment for sleepovers with Dave when they were both thirteen. But that was years ago. Have you seen him since then? You’re not really up to date on Dave’s friends, or when they visit the apartment.

 

What’s his name? You know it starts with a J. Jude? No, that’s not it. Jack? He doesn’t look like a Jack. John? Yeah, that must be it. You’re pretty sure his name is John. Now the girl, you have no idea who she is. She’s the same height as John, probably the same age as well, with long, thick, straight light blonde hair that’s streaked dark blue in some parts. Her skin is pale; you can see the veins in her neck. She’s got wire rim glasses on that aren’t as hipster like as John’s. She’s got zits on her cheeks and forehead. She’s wearing a sundress, one of those flowy, thin long ones that covers her entire body except for her neck and arms. The sundress is orange with a pattern of yellow and blue flowers. You can’t see her shoes. You do see that she’s wearing a sliver necklace with some charm on it. Why does she have a black eye patch as well as glasses?

 

The two of them are moving so frantically across the room, eyes on each other, and faces glued to each other arms and hands everywhere, exploring each other. There’s an animalistic nature to their make out session. They’re needy, messy, and urgent. You recognize that urgency. It’s the type that accompanies want and lust and usually predates decisions made in the spur of the moment. It’s in a moment of clarity that you realize that these two came in here with a purpose in mind. They've been making moaning noises as they French each other and grope their skinny bodies. What else would this lead up to?

 

You hope they don’t fuck on your futon. You spent a long time setting that shit up. The smuppets are exactly how you want them. They better not touch your smuppets. They’re moving again. The kitchen? You’re afraid they might hurt themselves somehow what with all the weapons you keep stored in there. They seem too impatient to make it to the bedrooms. If they fucked on the floor you guess that’d be okay. It might be painful for them, hardwood floors and what not.

 

You watch as they make their way over to a window, one that you had pulled halfway up earlier to get some fresh air in the place. It’s a rectangle shaped window placed vertically. There’s nothing in the way in that space. You’re interested to see where this goes. You watch as John pulls away from her then spins her around, and pushes her towards the open windowsill. She’s compliant as he pushes her body down so that she’s bending, with half her body out the window and what must be her stomach area resting on the wooden windowsill. How is that comfortable?

 

John busies himself with lifting her dress up so that it piles up on her hips, bunching together. You notice she isn’t wearing any underwear. More power to her you suppose. Right now John is unzipping his pants and pulling them and his dark blue boxers down to rest at his ankles and oh yes.

 

Hell yes. Hell fucking yes. John has the most perfect ass you have ever seen on anyone, regardless of age or gender. It’s just so nice, and flawless in complexion. It’s smooth and you think it’s most likely soft to the touch. His ass is round and full, like all the fat in his body just wound up there somehow. You want to squeeze his ass. You want to put both your hands on it and just feel it and spank him and ride him and oh fucking hell; you could bounce a quarter off that thing.

 

His legs are nice, lean with muscle and covered in lots of dark hair under the knees. They take their time with preparation, and it takes a couple tries until John is positioned in the right spot. You can’t see his dick, but by how the girl is moaning as he enters her and starts fucking her, he must have a damn good dick. You can tell when people are faking during sex, and these two aren’t faking anything.

 

John’s motions are fast and erratic, the kind that teenage boys are wont to have. He’s pistoning in and out of her with his hands on her waist, and she’s moving back and forth across the windowsill. There’s an exhibitionist style to their fucking that you admire. It’s fast, frantic, and you think you ought to look away but you won’t. Not because you’re some perverted older man who indulges in voyeurism, which you aren’t, but because you want to watch John’s ass as it moves back and forth as he fucks the girl.

 

They aren’t saying anything, just moaning and grunting respectively. You hope they finish soon and get the hell out; you have a smuppet orgy to film. Unfortunately things don’t go your way. These are teenagers, and they have more stamina than you. They continue fucking in the same position for over ten minutes, that can’t be comfortable not resting halfway out a windowsill.

 

A quick check to your phone informs you that they’ve been at this for forty minutes. You look up and watch as John and the girl freeze up and you can tell that they’ve both finished. About fucking time, your legs were starting to cramp up.

 

As the two of them put their clothes back on and John helps the girl out from the windowsill and back into the apartment you realize you just watched two teenagers have unprotected sex.

 

The girl smoothes her dress and John zips up his pants.

John sits on the floor and the girl joins him. They both need a moment to collect themselves, you're sure they're both sore as hell. Minutes pass, and you suppose they feel better now because they're both standing near the window, looking at each other.

 

You hear the girl ask, “Are you sure it was alright for us to come in here?”

 

Her voice has a slight Russian accent to it, and she sounds like she draaaaaaaags her words out to be longer than they should be.

 

John looks at her, he smiles and says, “Oh sure. Dave did say his guardian would be out sleeping at this time.”

 

John doesn’t have any accent; his voice is chipper and confident, and nearly low in tone like most teenage boys.

 

Normally Dave would be right but you got up so you could get some work done. You’ll have to remember to kick Dave’s ass later for telling his friends they could use your apartment for their sexcapades.

 

The girl at least has the decency to look anxious. “Do you think we woke his guardian up?”

 

John waves his hand in her direction and pffts at her. “Nah, I mean if we did he would’ve come out to see what was going on.”

 

You roll your eyes. You don’t know why they had to use your apartment, or why they’re both being stupid. Teenagers.

 

“Hmm, well now that we’re finished, you wanna go get some pancakes?” The blonde girl asks.

 

John smiles at her and leads her away by the hand towards the door. “Fuck yeah pancakes fucking rule!”

 

The girl snickers, “I know they do, John.”

 

Oh, so you were right about his name then. So they don’t feel bad about breaking into someone else’s place to fuck. You’re really going to need to have a talk with Dave this can’t become a regular thing.

 

They leave the apartment a bit more subdued then when they came in. You notice they’re both attractive, and have the same shade of blue eyes. When they shut the apartment door and you know they’re really gone now, you walk out of the closet.

 

The smuppets are untouched and you’re grateful. Maybe now you can get some work done. You turn the four cameras on to start filming, but then you realize something. The other cameras in your apartment, the ones that are constantly on and streaming they filmed it; they filmed the whole teenage sex thing to your website. The entire time, their act was streamed to your site and watched by millions who come for puppet smut.

 

You rush to your computer to check the site’s traffic; you hope it hasn’t gone down. You can see that in the past hour traffic to your site has quadrupled, and people are still coming in. Hundreds of commenters are talking about it. This is the most activity you’ve had on the site in a while. You wonder how John and the girl will feel about being unwitting internet porn celebrities on a fetish site whose fan base isn’t exactly into exhibitionist teenager sex. You're getting a ton of traffic for this though. Maybe you’ve found a new niche market.


	2. ==> Dave: Volunteer and Meet Someone New

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What was happening just before the windowsill incident. Edited because I can't leave anything alone.

Methodist Hospital is a great place to be if you’re sick, you like to think. It’s rated as the top hospital in the Houston area, and it’s really clean and big. It’s a teaching hospital, and you’re used to seeing a lot of residents walking around with their clipboards making observations about the various patients in their beds. There are over 900 rooms in this hospital, including surgery wings. You’ve been here before as a patient when you were younger, and now as a seventeen year old junior in high school you frequent the place with your girlfriend doing volunteer work.

 

At first you were apprehensive to the idea of spending your weekends hanging out in a hospital trying to cheer up sick people. You didn’t see why you couldn’t try to do charity at a soup kitchen or some shit. Serve up soup and goodwill, fuck yeah. But your girlfriend insisted that time spent cheering up the sick and dying was a better way to go. So you went with her, and it wasn’t as bad as you’d thought it would be, and you actually enjoy visiting the patients.

 

You both have your reasons for doing this. Jade thought it’d be a good idea to do volunteer work because she was raised to believe that it was good to help others, never mind that she dislikes others attempting to help her. She also thought it would be good to put something on your college applications that would make you look good, and you can’t argue with that.

 

But you have your own reasons for doing this. Besides being able to put down your volunteer work on scholarship forms and college applications, you do this because you truly desire to be altruistic. This isn’t some weak attempt at balancing your karma. You’ve been a bad person in your past, and you feel like you need to make amends with the universe. You weren’t a puppy murderer or anything; you were always just kind of a narcissistic jerk who would put others down to protect your own low self-confidence.

 

You used to make fun of others, and taunt them when they found they couldn’t measure up to your high standards. Your Bro disapproved of your behavior but couldn’t strife you out of your frame of mind. Time and good friends helped you mature and grow out of that asshole phase of your life. You’ve been told teenagers are given grace periods so you shouldn’t feel as bad as you do about your past; but every time you think about what an insufferable prick you used to be, it makes you feel horrible. So you work hard to be a good person, because you truly want to be a good person, and you never want to go back to being the awful person you used to be.

 

Jade always thinks you’re being too hard on yourself. You think she’s lucky she never met you from when you were ten until fourteen. You want to be a good person, someone noble and heroic. You want to do good in life. Even if your reasons for doing so are inherently selfish; you have hope that you can be of some help to others, if you can even do that.

Oh shit someone’s calling you. It’s John. You doubt it could ever be anyone else.

“Sup?”

 

Hey Dave you home?”

 

“You know I’m at Methodist right now. Why? What do you need?”

 

“Uh, I’m in your neighborhood with V, and things are getting pretty hot and heavy, you know what I mean?”

 

“Sadly, no I do not. And you know I don’t, Egbert.”

 

“Yeah sorry, I keep forgetting you’re still a seventeen year old virgin.”

 

“Dude fuck you. Anyway what do you want?” You ask.

 

“Oh right! I wanted to know if it was okay to use your place to um…you know?”

 

“Are you actually asking if you can use my apartment so you and Vriska can get it on?”

 

“Yes. I’d go to her place or mine, but that would take a while and we’re like, right in front of your building.”

 

“Dude there is so much wrong with what you’re asking it’s insane. Who does what you just did? Who asks what you’re asking?”

 

“Um, someone who knows he can count on his best friend no matter what?”

 

“You’re such a kiss ass when you want something.”

 

“Shut up Dave. Look, this is happening so is it cool if we use your place?” You can hear the urgency in his voice.

 

“I don’t even know where you’d do it, I wouldn’t be there to let you in, and just in case it slipped your mind, my Bro’s home, and I don’t think he’d be into seeing you and Vriska getting your collective freaks on. Or maybe he would be.”

 

“Gross Dave, gross.”

 

You roll your eyes at John's immaturity.

 

“Oh wait I forgot, Bro’s sleeping now. Yeah, dude spends his weekends hibernating in his room. He wouldn’t even notice if you were there.”

 

“So….are you saying it’s okay?”

 

“Man, I don’t know! I would’ve thought you’d gone and done it already! Why are you still talking to me when you could be getting laid?”

 

“Geez, get your panties out of that twist they’re in, Dave.”

 

“Just do what you need to do, and get out of there as fast as you can. Try not to make a mess.”

 

“Wanna hang out later?”

 

“Sure John. I’ll call you when I’m free.”

 

“Alright thanks bye.”

 

“Bye.”

 

You hang up and put your iPhone back into your jean pocket. Well that conversation was certainly a first, and one you hope never to have again. Honestly why can’t John just keep it in his pants? Not that you’re jealous that he gets to have sex, not at all. You could totally lose your virginity if you wanted to. If Jade was actually into sex, which she isn’t. You’ve never gone beyond a hug or a kiss with her. You aren’t blaming her, no.

 

You like Jade a lot, and you wouldn’t pressure her into doing anything she was uncomfortable with. That doesn’t stop you from secretly resenting her sometimes when she refuses to go any farther than you’ve gone with her even though you’ve been together a year and she knows you’re just as sexually frustrated as the next guy. You like to think girls want to have sex as much as guys so you don’t know what she’s waiting for.

 

You’d never cheat on her. You’re frustrated as hell but you find ways around it. Ways like jerking it to fan fictions involving different characters from different fandoms you’ve been in over the years; or looking up pictures of nude models. You are eternally grateful for the abundance of porn on the internet to keep you company during the long, cold nights of not getting any which is always.

 

Jade comes up to you carrying two Styrofoam cups. Trailing behind her is Bec, all white fur and gross green tongue. That dog should have bit the dust a long time ago. You’re positive there must be some witchcraft involved in keeping that devil beast alive as long as it has been. Jade brings Bec with her to the hospital because the kids in the pediatric unit love him, as do the elderly on their death beds. You don’t’ understand why. As well behaved as Bec can be, he’s still a huge four-legged white fur ball German shepherd mixed with White Wolf.

 

Jade hands you one of the cups. Bec is sitting near her feet.

 

“Here Dave!” She says as you take the cup from her.

 

“Thanks Jade. Uh, hey Jade?” You frown as you look down into the contents of the Styrofoam cup.

 

“Yes?”

 

“This is orange juice. They didn’t have any apple juice?” You ask, looking up at her.

 

Her smile falls; a hand rises to touch her cheek. “Oh no, I checked, but this was all they had. I’m so sorry Dave! Do you want me to go out and find you some apple juice?”

 

You know she’s being sincere, Jade is always sincere. She’s looking at you like the world will implode if you don’t’ get your A.J. Like getting orange juice was so bad. You feel guilty just bringing up.

 

You wave your hand in a gesture of no. “Nah, it’s cool really. I’ll deal.”

 

She lowers her hand to cradle her drink. “Are you sure?”

 

“Positive.” You answer.

 

She smiles again, and then gives you a kiss on the cheek. She pulls away, and then takes a drink of her juice.

 

She wipes her mouth with the back of her hand before speaking. “Bec and I are going to see the kids in the cancer ward now. After that, we can leave.”

 

“Cool. I’m gonna spend some time helping out in the coma patient ward then.” You reply.

 

You give her a quick kiss on the lips, and then head off in opposite directions. You watch her leave; she’s in her navy denim overalls and light green squiddles shirt she wears with it. Jade is a nice girl, you just hate how easily she can make you feel bad for inadvertently making her feel bad. You guess that’s the curse of having a sweet girlfriend that makes your heart melt.

 

You spend the next two hours following around a male nurse, helping him take care of coma patients. This includes changing bed sheets, rolling muscles and joints, adjusting positions, and changing feeding tubes. You aren’t allowed to touch the catheters.

 

When your feet get tired, you as if you can sit and read to one of your favorite patients. The nurse needs to get more supplies, and so says yes to your request. After the nurse leaves you head over to the room where patient 0611206 is located. When you get there, you sit in the chair next to his bed, get settled in, and pull out your iPhone.

 

Patient 0611206, so called because of the tattoo on his wrist, came in three months ago as the victim of a car crash. No one has claimed him, and no one knows what his real name is. The damage done was so bad he’s had to wear bandages that cover his entire face. You’ve spoken to his doctors; they don’t know how much longer he’s got until he will finally wake up. You enjoy sitting next to patient 061206 and reading to him. You don’t’ know why you only read to him, but you do, and sometimes you feel as though he can hear everything you’re saying.

 

“Hey man. How you been? Oh me? Yeah, I’m alright. Girlfriend got me orange juice instead of apple juice. I know, can you believe it? What? Nah, I’m not blaming her. I’ve still got it here with me. I’d offer you some, but I don’t know if you even like orange juice?”

 

You look at the potted plant sitting on his bedside table. You look around to check if anyone’s watching you before you dump the contents of your Styrofoam cup into the soil of the plant.

 

“Don’t tell anyone, ‘kay? Alright, how about I read some Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff, sound good?”

 

He doesn’t really answer you, but you like to pretend that he is. You pull up the site onto your phone, and start scrolling until you find your latest comic. Your readership has increased since linking it with your Bro’s site. You aren’t that cool with having puppet fetishists reading your stuff, but the more readers you have the more money pull in from site hits and ad revenue.

 

You read halfway through the first comic when you hear a rustling from behind the large curtain that separates patient 0611206’s side of the room from the other half. You had forgotten about that other half of the room. It’s really rare that he’ll have a roommate; you’re used to this room being unoccupied except for him. You lower your phone to your lap and look up at the curtain. There’s some movement, and then the curtain is pulled back halfway.

 

There’s a girl holding onto the curtain. She lets go of it as soon as you’ve caught her eye.

 

“Oh, hello,” She says.

 

You take a few seconds to look at her. She’s really skinny with a narrow waist. She’s wearing a teal t-shirt with a design of a red dragon on the front. She’s wearing black skinny jeans that seem glued to her skin. Her shoes are red and white converse. She’s got black lipstick on, and red cat eye sunglasses. She’s got a pixie face, very pointy chin and cheekbones, and upturned nose. She’s got short blonde hair that ends in outward flips just near the middle of her neck. You notice that in one hand she’s holding a red walking cane; the handle is molded into the head of a roaring dragon.

 

She’s pretty cute.

 

“Hey.” You respond, trying to sound as nonchalant as you can.

 

“Sorry, I didn’t know there was anyone else here.” You say, going to stand up.

 

You walk over to her.

 

“I’m Dave.” You tell her.

 

She smiles, grinning wide, and you swear she’s got rows of tiny, sharp teeth.

 

“I’m Terezi.” She tells you, offering her free hand.

 

You take her surprisingly soft hand and shake it.

 

She looks at the blue smock shirt you’re wearing over your white record t-shirt. By this point you’ve put your phone back into your red jeans.

 

“Are you a volunteer?” She asks.

 

“Yeah, I was just reading to one of my favorite patients. What about you?” You ask her.

 

She giggles, and then pulls you over past the curtain. She shows you the bed in the other room; an old woman is sleeping in the bed, tubes are connected to her.

 

“I was visiting my grandmother. She fell down a flight of stairs a week ago. My mom just got her moved into this room. As it so happens, I was reading to her at the same time you were reading to your patient.” She explains.

 

“Oh? What were you reading?”

 

“This,” She points to a large hardback book, “A History of Texas Court Cases of Murderers and Cannibals.”

 

You feel your eyebrows rise. You immediately put them back where they were.

 

“I was just reading some web comic I drew.”

 

She looks at you and grins again. “Really? What’s it called?”

 

“Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff,” You inform her.

 

She gasps audibly. “I’ve heard of that! I’ve read some of them actually. You’re a great artist.”

 

“Thanks but I’m not really.” You say.

 

She grins and waggles her eyebrows a bit. “I think you are.”

 

You decide to change the subject. “Sorry about your grandma.”

 

“Thank you. I think she’ll be ok. I’m going to be visiting her after school and on weekends, so you’ll probably see me a lot.” She says.

 

You don’t see anything wrong with that.

 

“Cool. So Terezi, how old are you?”

 

“Seventeen,” She answers.

 

“Hey you’re my age then.”

 

“Neat! Okay Dave, I have a question. What’s up with your shades?” She asks, cocking her head.

 

“I’ll tell you about mine if you’ll tell me about yours.” You can feel the smirk on your lips.

 

Before she can say anything, your phone goes off. You pull your phone out and look at the screen. You’ve got a text from Jade.

 

Jade: Downstairs in lobby waiting for you <3

 

You put your phone away.

 

“Sorry, I have to leave. It was nice chatting with you though.” You tell Terezi.

 

“Yeah it was pretty cool to meet someone else in this room besides coma patients and staff.” She grins at you.

 

“Okay I guess I’ll see you later, if you’re here abain? Again?” You say. You can’t believe how you’re tripping over your sentences. What the actual Hell?

 

Terezi doesn’t notice, she just giggles and says, “Sure thing. Later Dave,”

 

You let go of her hand and head downstairs to meet your girlfriend who you totally did not forget existed in the last seven minutes. Nope.

 

It’s when you see Jade and Bec that you realize that Terezi never once let go of your hand, from the second she took it, and you kind of miss the feeling of her hand in yours. You hope you’ll get to see her again. When Jade asks you how the coma ward was, you tell her everything. Except meeting a cute, giggling blonde with red sunglasses.

 

You are walking Jade home when you remember that there are cameras constantly streaming video to your Bro's site. You feel a sense of dread, and you look at your phone and see some unread texts from your Bro demanding that you hurry home, because there are things you need to talk about. Like how you shouldn't give your friends permission to use the apartment for their sex sessions because the cameras caught everything, and the whole thing is online now. You fucked up. You have fucked up now.


	3. ==> John: Get in Trouble

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> John gets in trouble (I guess)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I edited this thing. Next chapter will be from Bro's perspective.

You look up from your empty plate at Vriska. The two of you have been sitting in this Ihop for two hours eating, talking, and going over your homework. Your table is littered with plates of food you had eaten earlier. They are covered in different kinds of syrup and eggs. You are stuffed, and are really in no mood to get up and leave just yet. For some reason, you don’t feel like going home. It’s why you’ve stayed here as long as you have.

 

You look at Vriska. She’s got her nose in her phone, her thumbs quickly tapping away a message.

 

“Who are you texting?” You ask her.

 

“Spider-Grandmere,” She informs you as she puts her phone down, looking up to you and smiling a wry smile. “I really need to go home soon. I’ve been out way too long.”

 

“It’s only six forty,” You whine, slumping back in the booth you’re in, “I do not feel like going home, can we just stay out a bit more?”

 

“John, we’ve been out all day since ten this morning, I’m exhausted, and I can’t keep staying out so long with you just because you don’t want to go home just yet.”

 

“How are your sides?” You ask her.

 

“Better now, they were really sore earlier.” She informs you, punctuating her statement with a rub to her left side.

 

You laugh nervously. “Yeah sorry, I couldn’t think of any place we could have sex without disturbing anything in the apartment.”

 

“I still think we shouldn’t have gone in there.”

“Hey you’re the one who insisted that we needed to do it right away.” You point out.

 

Vriska rolls her eye. “I didn’t insist we break into someone’s home.”

 

“It wasn’t just someone’s home, it was Dave’s apartment and he said it was okay for us to use it.”

 

“Did he really?”

 

“Yes! I mean, kind of? I think so?” You tilt your head in confusion.

 

You watch Vriska shake her head.

 

“Don’t you shake your head at me,” You tease, “Look, if it was a bad decision, we would know it.”

 

Your phone starts blowing up in your jeans. You take it out, and check out the caller id. It’s Dave. He must be free now. You flip open your phone to answer it.

 

“Dave, hey! Are you free now? Can you hang out?”

 

“John, before I say anything, answer this question: Did you go to my apartment?”

 

“Well yeah. You said it was okay, technically speaking.” You reply.

 

You hear some aggravated groaning on his end.

 

“Uh, Dave? You there?”

“I am not looking at the site then. I’m taking your word for it that you were there. Shit, fuck, John.” Dave mutters.

 

“Dude what’s wrong?”

 

Now Vriska is staring at you, leaning across the table trying to overhear the conversation as best you can. You lean towards her, and turn the volume up on your phone.

 

“Dave, answer me.” You say when he doesn’t respond after a while.

 

Dave speaks. “It’s my fault. I know it is. I should never have said it was okay for you to go into the apartment. How could I forget about the cameras?”

 

You and Vriska catch each other’s gaze, and you can feel a cold dread go through you.

 

You swallow before replying. “What cameras?”

 

“The cameras that stream live feed directly online 24/7. The cameras that are set up in the living room and kitchen to catch any and all puppet related smut that might happen.” Dave explains, “I’m pretty sure I told you about them a long time ago.”

 

You groan, “Oh shit, I totally forgot about those. So what, the cameras caught the whole thing?”

 

“The. Whole. Thing.” Dave says, pausing between each word.

 

Vriska smacks your arm, and you use your free hand to smack her away. She huffs, and pulls out a credit card and gets up to pay the bill.

 

“The whole thing is on my Bro’s website. You know which one.” Dave tells you.

 

You stand up and walk over to Vriska. She’s got the receipt and her credit card which she puts back into her cleavage. You ignore the looks the staff gives her. You follow her outside.

 

“The puppet porn one?” You ask Dave.

 

“Yes John, the puppet porn one.” Dave retorts.

 

“So I’m guessing we can’t hang out right now.” You say.

 

You’re walking Vriska home now, when she gets a call of her own. She continues walking as she takes the call, so you don’t stop. You hear Dave sigh.

 

“Nope, I’m thinking you’re about to be in as much trouble as I am right now.”

 

“What are you talking about?” You ask.

 

Vriska stops walking and you see a look of shame and terror on her face, her phone held up to her ear. A shaky hand runs through her hair, and she gives you a furtive glance.

 

“I mean John, the proverbial shit has hit the whirring ceiling fan blades that are our lives. I’m in trouble, you will be in trouble once your parents find out, and Vriska’s probably in trouble too.” Dave explains.

 

Vriska hangs up her phone, shaking as she does so, her eye focused ahead of her.

 

“I need to go; Bro is insisting we head to the roof for some good old fashioned strifing. My words, not his.” Dave clarifies.

 

“Uh huh,” You say, now more interested to find out what’s gotten Vriska so freaked.

 

“I’ll talk to you later, after I get my ass handed to me.” Dave says.

 

“Bye, Dave.” You reply.

 

“Bye.” He says, and then you both hang up, and you put your phone away.

 

You walk over to Vriska and put a hand on her shoulder. She shakes it off, but does meet your gaze.

 

“What’s wrong?” You ask.

 

“That was Spider-Grandmere,” Vriska tells you, “She saw a video.”

 

“And?”

 

“Of us.” She clarifies.

 

Realization hits you and you face palm.

 

“Oh, damn.” You mutter.

 

“I need to go home right the fuck now.” Vriska tells you.

“Alright.” You say.

 

“She wants you to come with me.” Vriska tells you.

 

You frown. “Why do I have to come with you?”

 

“Because it takes two to do what we did and she wants to yell at you as well.” Vriska explains.

 

You ignore her laughing at the face you pull.

 

Vriska lives in a high rise with eight floors. You take an elevator to get up there, and are greeted by Vriska’s grandmother, an elderly French woman of noble blood. She’s got long white hair, and dark blue eyes that are familiar to the Serket women. The shawl wrapped around her shoulders looks like a spider web, and she’s dressed in all white.

 

As you and Vriska enter the penthouse, she eyes you with contempt. As soon as the front door is locked, Spider-Grandmere is on the two of you.

 

“You two ought to be ashamed! Do you have any idea how embarrassing this whole situation is? I have Barons and Counts who have been calling me, because their grandchildren found a sex tape online, with you in it!” Spider-Grandmere’s words are spewed out with a thick French accent. Even though she’s shorter than Vriska and you, she’s still intimidating, especially when she’s waving around her silver walking cane at your faces.

 

“Grandmere, it really is just an awful mistake! We didn’t know there would be cameras!” Vriska tries to reason.

 

“Silence! It’s not enough that there is a video of you on the internet getting fucked, but everyone I know has seen it! It’ll take weeks to fix our reputations from this fiasco. What do you have to say for yourself? Are you a porn star now?” Spider-Grandmere demands.

 

“That’s ridiculous! I didn’t know we were being filmed, and this is the first time something like this has happened!” Vriska shouts.

 

You step back, watching them, their French and Russian accents coming out more pronounced than ever.

 

“And you!” Spider-Grandmere points her cane at you. You were really hoping she’d have forgotten about you while she yelled at Vriska.

 

“Er, yes?”

 

“You think it’s okay to break into people’s homes?” She asks you.

 

“Well, I did technically get permission to go in.” You answer.

 

She scowls, and then whacks your legs with her cane.

 

“OW!” You cry out, falling to your knees. That really hurt.

 

“Grandmere!” Vriska admonishes. She backs off when her Grandmere turns on her.

 

“You’re next, dear. What do you think your dear mother said when she found out? This punishment comes straight from her orders.” Spider-Grandmere tells her.

 

Vriska’s face falls. “Mom knows?”

 

Spider-Grandmere nods her head. “She called me from one of her ships. The Marquise is not happy with you Vriska.”

 

You think you can see pity flashing across Spider-Grandmere’s face. It is instantly replaced with the stern expression you’re used to seeing on her elderly face.

 

You feel sorry for Vriska. You feel even worse knowing this is your fault, even if Vriska was the one who picked the lock.

 

“I’m sorry this happened.” Vriska says her gaze on the hardwood floors.

 

Spider-Grandmere shakes her head. “Turn around, lift up your dress, up to your knees.”

 

Vriska immediately looks up. “No! Please, not that! Anything but that!” She pleads.

 

You know what’s coming. You’ve seen it happen a few times, you’ve seen the after effects of it.

 

“You want me to tell the Marquise you blatantly disobeyed orders to receive your punishment?” She asks.

 

Vriska slumps her shoulders, then does as she’s told. She keeps her dress lifted up, the fabric bunching around her legs. Spider-Grandmere goes over to her, raises her cane, and hits the backs of Vriska’s legs.

 

You flinch as you hear the sound of silver hitting her flesh. Vriska cries out in pain as her Grandmere’s practiced arm makes perfect contact with her skin, again and again. You don’t really understand this method of corporal punishment. But the Serket women have a tradition of treating disobedient children the same way a pirate treats a wayward subordinate.

 

Spider-Grandmere whacks Vriska’s legs eight times, and by the time she’s done, you can see large spots where bruises will form, and blood running down her calves. She falls to the floor, refusing to look at anything. You don’t think this was necessary at all, but you can’t really say anything. At least it’s over now.

 

Spider-Grandmere looks at you, her cane at her side. “You should go home. I’m sure your parents will want to speak with you.”

 

You nod, and stand up. You go over to Vriska and hug her quickly, kissing her cheek. You know she’s a strong person, and the pain she feels is nothing to her. Still, you like to show her that you do care about her.

 

“I’m sorry,” You tell her, “This whole thing is fucked, and hopefully things will blow over soon.”

 

Vriska kisses your lips and says “If only we could be that lucky.”

 

You know she can’t walk right now, so you let yourself out. Spider-Grandmere has retreated to her room, and Vriska is still on the floor, keeping her dress from slipping and getting stained with blood.

 

The walk home isn’t that far, but you’re dragging your feet. You aren’t ready to face your dad or mom yet. You know you’re fucked. What you did was incredibly stupid, and now it seems like the whole world knows about this. But that can’t be true. Just anyone with an internet connection knows about this.

 

You text Rose quickly, she lets you know that mom and dad found out from Vriska’s grandmother, who found out from some old friends of hers who found their grandchildren looking at it on their computers. You aren’t sure what the big deal is. Everyone knows you aren’t a virgin, and haven’t been for a very long time. That’s just common knowledge. Is it that you broke into someone’s apartment? Yeah, that was a shitty thing for you to do. Even if Dave did kind of say it was okay. The fact that there’s now video footage of you having sex online and thousands of puppet fetishists and others have seen you having sex with Vriska makes you feel uncomfortable. Dave said it was live feed, which means it’ll be harder to get rid of that footage. You hate your life so much right now.

 

Mom, wearing a fuzzy pink bathrobe opens the door and shuffles you in, ruffling your hair. Dad is nowhere to be seen, Rose is on the couch, dressed in her lavender night gown, a book in one hand, she’s reclining, taking up half the couch. She looks away from her book to give you a quick wink. You glare at her. You know she’s not going to be any help, just lying there pretending to read her book while she listens to you get yelled at.

 

Mom smiles at you and hands you a drink. It’s in a coffee mug, but you both know what’s in it.

 

“Thanks,” You tell her.

 

“Have a good day, sweetie?” Mom asks.

 

“Yeah, I did, until the very end.” You add wryly.

 

Mom shakes her head and sips her martini. You take an opportunity to gulp down some whiskey. You don’t need to explain anything. Everyone already knows. Somehow that makes it worse.

 

Dad comes round the corner from the kitchen. He’s got a slight imbalance to his walking. He stands next to Mom; stares at you as if he’s slowly figuring out that you’re finally home after being out so late.

 

“SON I AM DISSAPOINT.” Your Dad slurs loudly.

 

Mom puts an arm out to keep him steady.

 

“….Dad, are you drunk?”

 

He clears his throat. “Had some of Mom’s vodka when I found out. WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?” He yells.

 

“I was thinking I wanted to get laid.” You say without thinking.

 

Your Dad looks at you and shakes his head. “John. There is a time, and a place for these things. Breaking into your friend’s home without realizing the consequences of your actions is not it. This whole matter is embarrassing, and I’m not sure we’ll be able to come back from it.”

 

“Hey, it’s not that bad. And it was an accident, sweetie you may be a bit too hard on him.” Mom interjected.

 

“I think we may have to ground him.” Dad tells her.

 

“I doubt that would work. He doesn’t really have any friends to hang out with.” Rose says.

 

“I have more friends than you.” You snap at your stepsister.

 

“How could this happen? You were supposed to be the good one!” Your Dad laments.

 

You see Rose glare behind her book. Mom rolls her eyes. She knows Dad doesn’t realize what he’s saying because of the drinking.

 

“Dad, I haven’t been “the good one” since I was THIRTEEN YEARS OLD!” You shout.

 

Your Dad flinches and Mom just sips her drink. You know he doesn’t like to think about you growing up, but it’s happened, and he needs to accept that. You swallow the rest of the whiskey in one gulp, placing the empty mug on the mantle of the fireplace. You feel angry and stupid, and you just want something to make you feel like you don’t exist right now.

 

“You’re grounded. I know Monday’s an off day, so tomorrow and Monday, you are grounded. Now just…go to bed.” Dad says, waving his hand off in the direction of the stairs.

 

You don’t feel like talking anymore, so you just go up the stairs to your room. You flop down on your bed and lay there in the dark for some time. You check your phone. No messages from anyone. You decide to grab your laptop that’s been charging under the bed and flip it open and turn it on. The blue light from the screen illuminates the whole room.

 

You pull up your search engine and type in the address of the site you’re searching for. A warning flashes that you shouldn’t click onto the site unless you’re eighteen. You click proceed anyway. Seventeen is the legal age of consent in the state of Texas which you are currently in. And since you’re seventeen, you can view the material on the site.

 

It’s not like you haven’t done so before. You remember the first time Dave showed you Bro’s site. It freaked you out upon first viewing, but you check out every once in a while. It’s cool. You won’t tell anyone that though. You don’t see the video anywhere on the site. But then you scroll down to the forums. There are four new forum posts. You click on the latest one. And there it is a video, forty minutes long, of you and Vriska having sex. You cringe in the way most people do when they watch their sex tapes. The only difference with you is that you were unaware you were being filmed.

 

Scrolling through the forums, you start to feel a bit sick as these strangers talk about you and Vriska; some are demanding to see more, a few have even made gifs. There are hundreds of commenters; some are saying really creepy things about you and her. But they’re mostly saying creepy things about you. About how nice your ass is, how they want to do things to you, or have you do things to them. You weren’t really thinking about the consequences of what you had done until now. You’re glad that Houston is such a huge city, and these people would have a hard time finding you or Vriska.

 

You hope the footage will disappear soon, but some of these commenters have said they’ve seen the video on various other porn sites. You feel sick inside. This is partially your fault and you have no one to blame for your mistakes but yourself. You hate how this has affected Vriska and your parents. Your Dad never gets drunk, ever. You’ve screwed up, and you wish you could take it all back.

 

When your screen freezes up on the fourth page you refresh the page, only to see all the forum pages have been deleted and any attempts to start new forum topics have been locked. You redirect to the home page. There’s no trace of the sex tape footage on the site, no mention of it anywhere. You see a message from the web master.

 

It’s a concise paragraph about mistakes on this website, and how changes are being made, and any content related to today’s events will be deleted, and for the time being, comments are not allowed and any forum members who helped spread the video around are now banned. There are some apologies that sound very professional and tactful. You know Dave’s Bro wrote this and deleted those gross forum pages. That…makes you feel better, surprisingly.

 

You exit out, and shut down your laptop for the night. You close it, and put your laptop back under the bed. You check your phone one more time, and just like last time there are no new texts. You put your phone on the table by the window, and then pull off your jeans and your jacket shirt, tossing them on the floor before you flop down onto your bed, snuggling down into the covers.

 

You feel better in the morning, knowing the stuff on the site is gone. It’s still out there somewhere, but this morning you don’t feel as bad as you did before. You get some new clothes and head to your bathroom to get clean. Your chest and hair are still wet so you decide on putting off wearing a shirt and instead you keep toweling off your hair with a dark blue towel. When you exit the bathroom wearing some black jeans, fuzzy socks and nothing else, you can smell your Dad’s waffles and bacon from the kitchen. You head out to the balcony that connects the second floor with the staircase.

 

The smell is stronger now, and the TV is on mute but you can see the Fairly Odd Parents are playing. You look down and see two new people standing in the living room. They’re talking to Rose and Mom, and you notice Dave, and he waves at you. You’re about to shout something at him, when you notice that Bro is now looking up at you. Even with his shades and impassive expression you can tell he’s staring at you, at your damp chest. You see Rose and Mom taking Dave into the kitchen as Mom calls up to you saying breakfast will be ready soon.

 

You think you hear yourself saying okay to her. As soon as they’re out of site, Bro turns to face you, looking up at you from his spot down in the living room. You feel a bit uncomfortable. It feels like he’s staring into your soul, and he’s not saying anything and you think you can see a tiny smile pulling at the corners of his mouth. You don’t like how he’s making your heart race in your chest.

 

Without really thinking about it, you throw your wet towel down to him, and run away, not bothering to see if he caught the towel, or if it landed at his feet, or if it hit him or what. You run away to your room, locking the door and feeling a rush of panic and adrenaline going through you. Feeling safe alone in your room you try to make sense of your emotions, and you fail to come up with a reason for why you reacted the way you did, or why you feel so strange now.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Striders come over for a visit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I changed things up a bit.

Bro woke up on the futon after spending the night editing his entire website. Commentators were getting kind of rowdy so for now, comments and chat rooms are closed. He was able to get whatever footage of the incident off of his site, even though he was sure some site members had taken screen shots and posted them elsewhere; at least it was off of his website and he's made it impossible for anyone but him to upload videos to the website. For the time being, he's disabled all of the live-streaming cameras and put them all away in the closet in the hall where he also keeps extra fireworks.

 

If anyone complains about the lack of live-stream footage he won't care. After all it's his website and he can do whatever the fuck he wants to do with it. Dave wouldn't stop whining after their strife -which, admittedly was more about letting off steam than any actual punishment over giving John permission to enter their apartment for...that reason- about taking the cameras down anyway and that just gave Bro more incentive to take them down even though he was going to do that anyway since it stopped his whining.

 

Last night, after taking the footage off the site, he did something that a majority of the human population would consider bad. But he's never given a fuck about what people think, so it didn't matter what he did. After he made sure Dave was asleep he saved a video someone had captured of the windowsill incident to a private file on his laptop. In the living room the laptop is giving out the only light in the otherwise darkened space. He closed out of his site after writing up a formal explanation and apology on the front page of the website to explain what’s going on to anyone who still doesn’t know what’s going on. He pulled up the file he had put the video in, put in his headphones in and lowered the volume before expanding the video to full screen and pressing play.

 

The audio of the video isn’t great, but the quality is. He watched the scene unfold and it wasn’t too long until he was unzipping his pants and pulling his dick out of his boxers. He watched John pistoning in and out, he paid extra attention to John’s backside. His right hand found its way to his already stiffening dick. After the strife Bro asked Dave how old those two were. If they were underage he would get in a lot of fucking trouble for having technical child porn on his site.

 

It was a good thing Dave confirmed what he had already assumed, that they were indeed seventeen, and according to Texas law they were both legal adults and at the age of consent. That made him feel less guilty about what he was doing. He didn’t think he’d feel comfortable getting off to this kid if he was underage. Dave was quick to add that John had just turned seventeen so for him it really was more of a case of him being barely legal, but still. As he moved onscreen his fingers gently gripped his dick from the base of his shaft.

 

He stroked himself as he watched John, as he listened to his grunts and groans. He replayed moments he found particularly hot, and listened closely to John’s voice. As he watched John he touched himself his dick got harder until he was throbbing for release. His head fell back against the chair he was sitting in; he closed his eyes and imagined what it would be like to be the one with John. To be able to touch him and kiss him, and hold him, and bend him over and spread his legs and just fuck him senseless until he’s screaming his name.

 

He imagines John has soft skin, and he’d tremble beneath him He thinks about holding him, stroking him, seeing how fast he can make him come undone. He’s got a really great body, and he’d like to touch him all over. The thought of sucking on his neck and running his hands through his hair alone is making him feel really horny. He tried to recall the sound and tone of his voice as he felt himself getting closer and closer to the edge. His voice was sexy just like the rest of him. Normally he isn’t attracted to teenagers at ALL.

 

The last time he was attracted to a teenager he was one himself. Seventeen is the youngest age of anyone he’s ever been attracted to. He’d be kidding himself if he said that John’s youth wasn’t a huge fucking turn on. But it’s more than just his age. Every little thing about him is sexy. He found himself needing release, he jerked himself off, his hand moving faster and faster, he came onto his hand as he saw John’s smiling face just before the two teens left. He hadn’t jacked off in a while and his hand is coated in thick, hot glaze. He’s breathing heavily and trying to relax as the intensity of his orgasm slowly subsides. He closed the video and rested as his dick started to soften. Choosing to pull his pants off all the way he walked to the bathroom half naked to wash his hand off. He went back to the living room, put his pants back on, shut off his laptop and flopped onto the futon to get some rest.

 

He woke up the next morning to Dave on the phone. He’s standing by the window; phone in hand, his other hand in his pocket. Bro eased off the futon, yawned and stretched, his joints cracking. Dave’s back his to him and he’s listening to the person on the other end speak. Bro walked past him to the kitchen to start some coffee. “Yeah. Yeah, that’s okay. That’s fine. Yeah I’ll let him know. Bye.” Bro was busy with turning the coffee pot on when Dave enters the kitchen, putting his phone back in his pocket. Bro looked over to Dave and Dave nods to acknowledge his existence.

 

With Bro's back to the kitchen counter, he asked Dave “Who was that?”

 

Dave's head lowers. “My mom.”

 

A silence hangs in the air for a moment.

 

“Oh.” Bro says.

 

Dave looks up and crosses his arms. “Yeah. Oh.”

 

This is a bit of an awkward subject for these two. They don't talk all that much about Dave's mother, or why his twin sister lives with her and he doesn't. Bro scratches the back of his head, the only sounds coming from the coffee maker.

 

“Well what'd she want? Bro asks.

 

“She called to invite us over for breakfast today. She wants us to start heading over right away.”

 

Bro looks at the clock on the microwave. “It's eight in the morning.”

 

Dave snorts “Yeah the La-Eg-Londe-Berts like to do things super early.”

 

“Way too fucking early.” Bro mutters.

 

He chalks it up to being tired in the morning, but he still feels like an idiot for forgetting that Dave's mom is also that John kid's step mom.

 

“Why are we being invited over for breakfast?” Bro asks.

 

Dave shrugs. “Mom and John's Dad want to talk about what happened with the uh, video footage.”

 

Bro sighs heavily and goes to one of the cabinets that don't have ninja weapons in them to grab his ceramic The Great Gonzo mug. He poured himself some coffee, forgoing any extras and just drinking it black. “I was hoping I could avoid any parental talks.”

 

“Yeah, well, too bad. Come on, drink your nasty coffee, put something on and we'll head over there.”

 

Bro looked down at the shirt and sweatpants he had been wearing for three straight days. It's not like it smelled, so he didn't see the problem.

 

“What's wrong with what I'm wearing right now?” He asked.

 

“You can't be serious. Look, I know you're used to wearing whatever the fuck you want in the apartment like the slobby hermit you are but out in the real world, people actually put effort into their appearance and as your kid, I would really appreciate it if you could, you know, do the same so I'm not embarrassed to be seen with you.” Dave said.

 

Bro rolls his eyes behind his shades and drinks some coffee. “How could I say no to that?”

 

“Just put some normal, clean clothes on please. If you even have clean, normal clothes that is.” Dave requested before leaving the kitchen to get dressed himself.

 

Bro can hear Dave muttering about how lucky John is that his parents actually put effort into how they look. He pours himself another mug of coffee and downs it all at once. As usual the coffee tastes awful.

 

Later in Bro's jeep Dave helpfully gave directions on how to get to the Egbert-Lalonde manor.

 

“Still don't see why we need to head over there first thing in the morning.” Bro says as he drives into the gated community and towards the upscale suburbs where they were being expected.

 

“Well I'm glad mom called to invite us over. She's never done that before. At least not for both of us. I can get a real breakfast instead of scrounging for food in the apartment.” Dave said.

 

Bro shakes his head. “The fuck are you talking about? I buy you real breakfast food.”

 

“Nasty egg sausage biscuit sandwiches from gas stations don't count.” Dave retorts.

 

Bro drives farther into the gated community. It's one of those really rich suburbs in Houston, with a rich, upper class name, where the soccer moms get Starbucks and do charity events and their husbands are all doctors, lawyers and business executives who play at the country club and drink martinis. These aren't houses he's driving past. They're manors, as Dave helpfully reminds him whenever he gets the chance. Bro just calls them McMansions. Dave tells him which street to go down and which manor to park the jeep in front of. Bro parks the jeep on the right side of the street and locks the doors after him and Dave exit out. Bro walks up to the manor, looking up at the huge four story McMansion in front of him. Dave runs past him, going up the slight incline of the driveway.

 

Dave's wearing his white record t-shirt and white jeans with his favorite red converse. Bro had decided to just throw on a white polo and black slacks. Unlike Dave, he just never really cared about fashion. As long as he was comfortable he was fine. Bro took a moment to look at the surroundings. All the lawns of all the McMansions were perfectly green, perfectly cut. The manors were all large, tall and different in their designs. The suburb was surprisingly shady for Houston, with all the large trees lining the sidewalks and some of the lawns and surrounding the area. The trees must have been hundreds of years old. The neighborhood was quiet this early in the morning.

 

Bro yawned, that coffee did nothing to wake him up. He has no idea why he got up in the first place. He never gets up this early, he usually sleeps until 2 p.m. One of the perks of working from home is setting your own hours.

 

When he reaches the front door Dave is standing there waiting for him. He climbed up the marble front steps to the large dark blue door. When he pressed the doorbell Dave immediately pulled him out of the way before he could be sprayed by a clear stream of fizzy liquid that had suddenly started spraying out of the doorbell button.

 

“What the hell was that? Seltzer water?” Bro asked.

 

“Yeah the La-Eg-Londe-Berts like to pull shit like this. Better stick to knocking.”

 

As Dave knocked on the door Bro reflected on the fact that this was his first time actually going into this place. He had dropped Dave off plenty of times in front of the manor for sleepovers and parties but he'd never once had reason to step into the house himself. He'd assumed it'd be like any other rich suburban home inside.

 

The door was opened by Dave's mother, Roxanne Lalonde. But no one called her that in a long time, especially not him. When he first knew her everyone called her Rox, and that's what he always called her, even now. Rox was taller than Bro, even without her ridiculous stiletto heels that she always wore. She wore a simple white dress that doubled as a lab coat with its pockets and black belt. She wore grey stockings under the dress and Bro noticed she didn't have shoes on.

 

Her eyes lit up at the sight of Dave.

 

“Dave!” She exclaimed, pulling him close to her chest, hugging him tightly.

 

Dave squeezed her back saying “Hi mom.”

 

Rox let go of him. She looked over at Bro smiling.

 

“Hey Bro.” She greeted him, her smile never wavering.

 

He waved halfheartedly at her. “Hey Rox.”

 

She stepped aside to allow them entry into her home.

 

“Come in, come in. Breakfast is almost ready. Oh, I just vacuumed would you mind taking your shoes off by the door? Thanks.”

 

The Striders took their shoes off as they were asked while Rox shut the front door. They left their shoes in a corner by the door before they continued on inside. As they wandered in Bro finally got a good look at the inside of the manor. In a word, Damn.

 

With high vaulted ceilings and long, wide walls and lots of open space the place is just as big as it appears on the outside. Everything is in simple cream and toffee colors from the plush carpeting to the large suede furniture to the painted walls. There are magnolias and camellias and lavender in a glass vase on the marble coffee table. There's a fireplace that's filed with unlit fat white candles. There's a humongous chandelier hanging from the center of the ceiling, all crystals and silver and glittering.

 

It would have looked like any other rich suburban home except for the rest of the décor. Bro could see that there were knickknacks on the end tables and the mantle of the fireplace. There were statues and paintings of gaudy wizards and dapper gentlemen who only lived in the movies and musicals of the 1950s. Personally speaking Bro didn't see the appeal of Roxy's and her husband’s wizards and douche bags. But he wasn't really someone who had any right to question anyone else's taste. There's a flat screen in the left corner opposite the entryway placed in an entertainment center. In the shelves beneath there's hundreds of dvds games, and different consoles and controllers and a satellite box.

 

That Nicktoon the Fairly Odd Parents was on the tv, muted. Dave's fraternal twin sister is sitting on the couch, her arm draped over arm of the couch, a remote is next to her right foot. When she sees them, she smiles one of her trademark wry smiles and gets up to walk over to them. She gave Dave and Bro quick hugs as her mother disappears to the kitchen off to the right.

 

Rose still has her hair in a short, smart bob, her thick bangs kept somewhat out of her eyes by a thick lavender headband that matches her pajama pants and the simple pastel t-shirt she has on.

 

“Good morning you two. How are you Dave? Bro?”

 

Bro can't say it doesn't sting a little, that she knows that he and Dave are her father and brother respectively but she doesn't see them that way, preferring to call them by their first names. Maybe it's better this way. She already has a dad and brother that she sees as more like her family than her actual biological one albeit she sees them more than she sees the Striders. Bro remembers when he and Rox got into an argument over Rose calling him by his first name when Rose was smaller.

 

“Don't try to confuse her. She's just a child, and besides. She already has a dad.”

 

Rox told him that in private, referring to her at the time, new husband.

 

Snapping himself out of his thoughts he and Dave clipped out “Fine.”

 

Bro could swear she was mentally laughing at them but her wry smile never left her face. Rox returned a moment later to stand at her daughter's side.

 

“Hi mom.” Dave said to her.

 

Bro saw Rox's face brighten even more as Dave got her attention.

 

“Hi sweetie. How's my little Davey wavy?” Rox cooed as she gave him a hug.

 

Rose and Bro couldn't help snickering at the embarrassing nickname.

 

“I'm good, doing volunteer work at the hospital still, I got a new camera, but I haven't gotten around to using it just yet.” Dave told her.

 

Rox smiled at Dave.

 

“Well J.'s still in the kitchen, breakfast is almost ready.”

 

“We could get you something to drink if you'd like.” Rose added. “Coffee? Tea? Some water maybe?”

 

“Rose I think you know damn well what I'd like to drink.” Dave said.

 

“Sorry Dave, we're all out of apple juice.” Rose told him, frowning.

 

Dave made a choked little sob and was gearing up for the meltdown that would follow. It didn't get any farther than that little sob though as Rox started to laugh and said “Your sister's just kidding Davey. We have plenty of apple juice, there's no need to cry.”

 

“I wasn't going to cry.” Dave mumbled.

 

“Really? Because it sounded like you were about to.” Bro chimed in.

 

Dave glared at him from behind his shades. Bro knew he was glaring by the way he drew his mouth into a hard line.

 

“What do you think of the place, Bro? This is the first time you've been inside so what do you think?” Rox asked, eager to hear his thoughts.

 

Bro took another look around and told her, “Well your taste in decorating sure as hell hasn't changed.”

 

Rox shoved his shoulder playfully. “You shut up! Excuse me if I don't have nasty puppets all over the place.”

 

“Don't diss the puppets Rox, that's part of how I make my livelihood.” Bro replied.

 

Bro glanced over at Dave who was looking up at the balcony at the top of the stairs on the right wall, south of the entry to the kitchen, waving with a smirk on his face. Bro looked up at where Dave was looking and saw John standing there on the balcony, looking down at them.

 

He could see John clad in black jeans and a dark blue towel hung around his shoulders. His bare chest still looked damp with droplets of water clinging to him and Bro could see that John had a long, lean frame and a flat stomach.

 

He saw John smiling down at Dave, about to say something when his eyes caught sight of Bro. Bro noticed that John's face fell when he noticed he was watching him. His eyes were wide, his mouth caught in a sight frown. Bro looked at John's face for a while taking in his youthful face, his clear skin. Seeing John's face for the first time in years Bro was happy to find that John's front was as attractive as his backside. He found himself staring at John, looking him over. He saw John was staring back at him.

 

“I'm thirsty.” Dave said.

 

“The apple juice is in the pantry.” Rose told him.

 

“Which pantry, there's tons of pantries in your kitchen.” Dave asked.

 

“Come on I'll show you.” Rox said, leading Dave and Rose towards the kitchen.

 

Bro hadn't stopped staring but he heard Rox call up to John. “John, breakfast will be ready soon.”

 

Bro suppressed the urge to laugh as John answered her without taking his eyes off him.

 

“Okay.” His voice did that thing where voices crack to let you know they were nervous.

 

Bro heard Rox asking Dave if he wanted crushed or cubed ice as she and Rose walked away. Bro continued to stare up at John, glad that his shades concealed his eyes. What he took from his view was that John looked really cute shirtless and wet, with his hair hanging down along his forehead.

 

He thought about touching John's skin, what it would feel like, soft and toned. He thought about how nice he must smell and taste after getting out of the shower. He felt the corners of his mouth twitch up slightly as he kept thinking of touching and tasting John. Suddenly John took the towel he had draped around his shoulders and threw it down to him before running back down the hall so fast Bro might have called it flash stepping.

 

The damp towel hit Bro right in the face before it landed at his feet. Bro looked back up at the balcony where John used to be. He picked up the towel and laughed as he made his way to the kitchen. The La-Eg-Londe-Bert manor, as Dave insisted on calling it, was indeed very spacious. And no more so than in the kitchen where found Dave, Rose, and Rose's parents.

 

The kitchen was long, rectangular in shape. There were marble counter tops, glass cabinets and chrome drawers and pantries and cherry wood floors. Bro could see that their kitchen had every gadget and appliance money could buy and everything in the kitchen was brand new. He guessed that was the benefit of being as rich as they are. Of course Bro had money too, he just wasn't the type to spend his money on stuff like this. Dave was sitting on a bar stool across from Rose at an island at the far end of the kitchen.

 

Dave was sipping his apple juice from a crystal glass while Rose had her nose stuck in a book. The counter tops were covered in plates of different breakfast foods, way too much for just six people to consume. It smelled great in the kitchen, like frying bacon and waffles and fresh fruit. Their kitchen was warm and inviting, completely the opposite of his own rarely used kitchen that was little more than storage space for his hardly ever used ninja weapons. Roxy was standing by her husband with a mimosa in her hand, grinning at him as the man moved the bacon from the frying pan to a waiting plate.

 

Dave “helpfully” reminded him on the way over that Rox's husband was John's father, and that he was a c.e.o., a member of the board of directors at some big company his family owned. What was it again? Something famous on the guy's mother's side. Fuck he can't remember. Rox noticed him standing against a counter and she nudged her husband with the hand that didn't have a drink in it.

 

After he put his spatula down and handed her the plate of bacon and shut off the burner he turned around and Bro saw John's father for the first time in years. The man was a few years older than Bro, and he was around Rox's height. He was a sturdy man, not fat or barrel chested, no he just had the build of a normal man from the fifties, a man who could probably lift more than Bro could. He wore an impeccably ironed white dress shirt with a black neck tie and grey slacks. Bro didn't want to know how the man kept his clothes so neat and clean, it was sort of uncanny. He wore a grey fedora with a black trim but thankfully the man didn't seem like the nice guy misogynist type so that was good. He had curly salt and pepper hair, a large pointy nose and his face was so clean shaven. Bro could see through his shades that the man had the same blue eyes John had. But through his shades all color was dull and faded.

 

The man walked over to him and Bro held out his hand expecting the guy to do one of those gentleman hand shake deals. Instead Rox's husband took Bro's arm and pulled him into a big bear hug. Bro was caught off guard and found himself being crushed and lifted a foot off the ground. Roxy burst into peals of laughter as Dave and Rose glanced up to see what was happening. Rox's husband put Bro back on his feet and let him go, laughing heartily as he did so.

 

“Sorry if I caught you off guard. Rox said you and Dave were coming, I hope there's enough food. I wasn't sure how much you and Dave liked to eat or even what you liked to eat.” He said.

 

“Uh.” Bro stammered, looking again at the plates of food.

 

“I'm sure we've spoken before when Rox and I first moved down here, right? But you haven't been here before now have you? Has he been to our home before this Roxy?”

 

“Nope.” His wife answered.

 

“Ah. Well then welcome to our home. What do you think of the place?” He asked.

 

“It’s...a big place.” Bro answered, feeling a bit awkward.

 

Rox and her husband laughed again although Bro wasn't sure what was so funny.

 

“Thanks for uh inviting us over for breakfast. Mr...”

 

“Egbert,but don't worry about being formal Mr. Strider call me J..”

 

Egbert, huh? Bro thought, what a dorky, uncool name.

 

J. continued speaking as he and Rox started moving plates out to the dining room. “So Rox tells me you have a first name, a real one that isn't Bro.” J said.

 

Bro had followed them into a large, spacious dining room that was decorated in kitschy d-bags and wizards.

 

“Uh yeah, Bro's a nickname from college. It just kind of stuck over the years.” Bro answered him.

 

“Mind telling me what your real name is?” J. asked.

 

“HA! Good luck! I popped out twins for the man and he didn't even tell me his real name until Rose and Dave were six! And after that he made me swear on a 19th Century bottle of Merlot that I would never reveal it to anyone.” Rox commented.

 

Bro thought Rox's candid nature might startle J. but he must have been used to it because he just said “Well I guess I'm stuck calling you Bro then. Calling you Mr. Strider would just be hypocritical of me.”

 

In no time at all the dining table was set and Rose and Dave had sat down in the dining room after Dave had gotten a refill. Bro pulled out a chair and sat across from the twins. He put the towel on the back of his chair. J. took his spot next to Rox.

 

Before anyone could grab any food Rox asked “Where's John?”

 

The question was answered by John appearing in the doorway and then coming over to take a seat next to his mother. Bro noted that he chose the seat that was farthest from where he was.

 

“Hi sweetie.”Rox greeted him, pulling him into a hug.

 

Bro watched as J. got up and tousled his son's now dry hair on his way back to his chair after going back to the kitchen to grab some napkins that he put on the table. He ended up making John's hair messier than usual. John was wearing a Pac Man t-shirt, a black one with the blue ghosts being chased by Pac Man across the front.

 

”Hi Dave!” John greeted his best friend.

 

“Sup.” Dave replied, with none of the energy John had.

 

If there was one thing that could be said about the Striders it's that they were not morning people.

 

“Say hello to Bro, John.” J. said.

 

Bro caught the look of annoyance that passed across John's face before he complied.

 

“Hey.” John greeted him.

 

His words were dull and flat and his eyes were down cast. Bro knew he shouldn't, but it would be too much fun to pass up.

 

“Hey kid.” Bro responded.

 

He saw John immediately look up with another clear look of annoyance on his face. There it is.

 

“Don't call me kid.” John told him.

 

“John, be nice.” J. admonished him as he put food on his plate.

 

John looked away and focused instead on grabbing a cinnamon roll. Bro knew that John could tell that he was still staring at him but with his sunglasses it was harder for the others to tell. The food was great in Bro's opinion. He wasn't one to cook much himself but evidently J. did a lot of cooking because this was gourmet and it was good. Dave shoveled the food right into his mouth, inhaling it almost. Rox had gotten up earlier to refill her mimosa and when she passed by Dave she gently patted his shoulder.

 

“Slow down, there's plenty of food.” She told him.

 

Dave swallowed the mouthful of food he had before he answered her. “Sorry, I just didn't realize how hungry I was.”

 

Bro hadn't noticed that Roxy right by his chair until she smacked him on the shoulder, hard.

 

“You don't FEED him enough!” She yelled.

 

He'd forgotten how strong Rox was.

 

“OW.” Bro exclaimed, rubbing his shoulder. “I feed him plenty.”

 

“Feed me fast food and junk from gas stations.” Dave snarked.

 

Rox glared at Bro while J. looked on in curiosity.

 

“Look, just because I don't do home-made meals doesn't mean I don't make sure he gets fed.”

 

Rox huffed before returning to her seat. After breakfast Bro stayed in the kitchen with the parents while the teens went off to the game room. Bro stood off to the right leaning on a counter as J. and Rox did the dishes.

 

“So now that the kids are occupied I thought we might talk about what happened at your apartment.” J. said to Bro.

 

Shit, Bro thought. He'd been hoping to avoid this topic.

 

“We're not interested knowing how or why it happened. We just want you to be aware that we're…upset.” J. continued.

 

“Upset doesn't cover it. J. here went and drank a third of my new Stoli that I just bought, he was so distraught.” Rox informed Bro.

 

J. hung his head, seemingly embarrassed.

 

“Hey, I'm sorry about what happened, I've done what I could to get it off the site but that footage is still out there.” Bro told them.

 

“We know. We're talking to attorney to see what our options are.” Roxy replied.

 

“The thing is, we want to talk about how to prevent something like this from happening again. We found out from Vriska's grandmother that Vriska was the one who picked the lock. ” J. explained.

 

The blonde Russian chick broke the lock? Damn, Bro thought.

 

“We suggest you get a new lock system, one that isn't easily broken by clever seventeen year-olds.” Rox added.

 

Bro nodded even though he was indignant at Rox's slight insulting tone.

 

“Yeah, okay, I can do that. I mean I've already got all the cameras in the apartment hut down so no more found footage.” Bro said.

 

“Hmm. Well thank goodness for small favors.” J. said.

 

Bro decided not to mention that he watched them the whole time. He didn't think he could explain his sudden interest in voyeurism.

 

“We're not placing blame on anyone I hope you understand that.” J said.

 

“Yeah, I got that.”

 

Bro replied before he downed some orange juice.

 

“We've grounded John for being reckless for today and tomorrow. After that, well...” Rox had trailed off.

 

“Well what?” Bro asked her.

 

“Well if you wouldn't mind us coming over to make sure everything's fine, then we could feel comfortable with John and Vriska going back to visit your apartment.” Rox explained.

 

Bro didn't really know what to say to that.

 

“Well cool.” Bro said.

 

“Of course if John wants to visit your apartment again, you'd have to be there. We trust John, we just trust him more when he has adult supervision.” J. said.

 

Bro didn't really get that, he'd always let Dave go where ever he wanted, he didn't really give a fuck if there was adult supervision or not.

 

“Yeah, that's uh, fine with me.” Bro told him.

 

Rox grinned at him as she and her husband finished putting away the dishes. Bro had expected that after breakfast that he and Dave would leave but J. and Rox insisted that they stay the entire day. Dave had no arguments and Bro was fine having J. and Rox give him a tour of their home. He found out that J.'s family made its fortune in a baking empire. THE baking empire to be exact.

 

“Wait, you're telling me your grandmother is Betty Crocker? The Betty Crocker? No way.”

 

J. and Rox had led Bro down to their wine cellar which was roughly the same size as Bro's apartment. Rox had built up an impressive collection of bottles to last several centuries. Here in the well-it cellar with the bottles lining the mirrored walls Bro listened as J. told him his family history. Rox walked ahead of them, dusting off bottles as she went.

 

“Yes, Betty Crocker is my grandmother. She was a Baroness from an old kingdom that no longer exists in South-Eastern Europe. She fled a revolution and ended up stateside and married a Southern aristocrat after making a name for herself with her baking. She kept the money and prestige from her title but none of the power with her kingdom gone. The title gets passed on to the eldest living female relative, which would be my late mother's sister in New Zealand.”

 

“I always thought Betty Crocker was a fictional person.”

 

“Well the corporate image as a perfect housewife that her company drummed up in the early years to promote the brand is fictional. The real woman was nothing like the happy homemaker the world is familiar with.”

 

“So what was she really like?”

 

“I didn't really spend any time with the woman outside of holidays and the odd birthday. But I can tell you what my own mother told me. She was a ruthless businesswoman, and cold and demanding with her own children. She was a perfectionist and expected my mother and her three siblings to be the best in whatever they did, that they be adepts, “Perfect little heirs and heiresses” to bring even more prosperity and fortune to the family company and name.”

 

“So she had more than one kid?”

 

“Oh yes, my mother was her first child, and then there was a son, another son, then finally a daughter. They were all born one right after the other, year after year. Her first younger brother, her grandmother's second child I mean, is Jade's grandfather.”

 

Bro stopped to stare at J. “Dave's girlfriend is your kid's cousin?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“…Huh.”

 

Roxy and J. led him up a flight of stairs that led out to a small circular solarium. They weren't in the room very long, in fact they were only there long enough to pass through on their way to the room adjacent, the playroom.

 

They entered another large, long room, this one with black wallpaper painted with spider lilies and white orchids. The grey carpeting was thick and soft. The walls were lined with pinball machines and old arcade games. Around the room there was a ping pong table, a chess set, a checkers set, a Foosball and air hockey set, a card table, a billiards set, a bookshelf filled with every board game, and at the end of the room there was a large flat screen in the middle of two black shelves that were filled with every video game ever made and every console ever put out on the market.

 

They walked into the room and found the three teens sitting on the large red suede couch, controllers in hand, watching the flat screen as they played a three person game of Mario Party 5.

 

“Having fun, munchkins?” Rox called cheerily.

 

“Yes.” They replied in unison.

 

Rox giggled and went to sit in a matching barca lounger off to the side. Bro noticed she had an open bottle of red wine in her hand that wasn't there before. Bro stood next to J. and watched the kids. J. pulled a pipe out of his pocket and a lighter and after carefully lighting his pipe he began smoking from it in a very leisurely way. Bro couldn't remember the last time he'd ever been in a situation like this. In fact he doesn't think he's ever been in a situation like this. He was so used to just being lazy at the apartment, alone with nothing but dvds of Crank Yankers and a bag of Cheetos. It felt odd to be here. The whole thing was just so very modern Norman Rockwell. He had no idea people like that were real, or lived like this.

 

There was a loud buzzing noise after a few minutes of watching the kids play. Bro glanced over to see J. looking at a grey P.D.A. After a few seconds he put the device back in his slack pocket.

 

“Well I'm going to get some groceries for tonight. Rosie, come with me please, your prescription is ready.”

 

Rose hopped off the couch and walked over to J. Bro wondered what a seventeen year old girl would need with a prescription for. Then he felt stupid for not realizing the very obvious answer. It's not like he could know really, raising a boy and being a gay man who only had sex with a woman once, years ago. Rose gave her mother a kiss on the cheek before leaving with her adoptive father.

 

“Dave, how are you doing in school?” Rox asked.

 

Dave hadn't expected his mother to ask him any questions after minutes of silence so he was caught off guard and his character ended up losing onscreen. Dave put his controller down and looked over at Rox who was drinking straight out of the bottle and looking straight at him.

 

“I'm doing uh, well. Still in all Advanced Placement classes, still getting straight A's like your other kids.” Dave told her.

 

Rox put the bottle down and smiled at him. “How are you and Jade doing?”

 

Bro noticed that John even paused the game and looked at Dave when Dave hesitated and didn't answer right away. There were times Bro wished that Dave didn't wear his aviators like they were an extension of his face, and then there were the days he wished Dave was more adept at concealing his emotions because even with the shades he wasn't completely able to hide his emotions. Bro watched Dave struggle for longer than necessary before answering.

 

“Good. It's um, going good with her. We're still doing volunteer work at the hospital.” Dave finally told her.

 

Rox smirked and got up out of her lounger. “Dave, come with me, I want to talk to you.”

 

Dave sighed and shook his head. “God damn it.”

 

“Now, now Dave, it won't be that bad. Come on, I'll get you some more organic apple juice.”

 

Dave sighed again and got up off the couch and followed Rox out through another door on the Eastern wall. Bro watched John stand up and turn off the game and the tv.

 

“Well what are you going to do?” Bro asked.

 

John flinched and looked behind him after he stood up. Bro smirked and crossed his arms. John tried to hide the fact that he had forgotten that Bro was still there by immediately shrugging and casually strolling around the couch as he headed towards the Northern door.

 

“I have piano practice every day.” John explained.

 

”Cool.” Bro replied, eyeing that Crash Bandicoot game up on the right shelf as he walked over to John.

 

“Do you wanna watch?”

 

Bro has to fight back the choking on his spit at John's choice of words.

 

“Uh, what?”

 

John has his hands shoved down into his pockets and he looks a bit surer of himself than he was before.

 

“I was just asking if you wanted to watch me practice on my piano.” John asks, his blue eyes locked onto Bro's sunglasses Bro answers by pushing the weight off his feet.

 

“Sure. Sounds cool.” He tried to pretend he didn't notice the small smile that played on John's face as John opened the Northern door and turned off the light and walked out.

 

Bro followed John down the hallway, at this point he had lost count of how many doors and halls were in this place. He walked at a slower pace than he was used to, because he was enjoying the view of John walking in front of him.

 

“Do you play any instruments Mister Strider?” John asked, looking over his shoulder as they turned a corner.

 

Oh no. Not this Mister Strider bull. He hated when people called him that, it made him feel old. He didn't want John to be so formal with him it just emphasized their age difference. But hey, maybe just felt more comfortable being formal with him. Or maybe he was just trying to get an advantage on the situation after being embarrassed earlier.

 

“Nah, I'm not really the musical type. Messed around with rapping for a while. That didn't really work out. How long you been playing the piano, kid?”

 

There it was, just like Bro expected. John made a face, a scowl mixed with a sneer that teens made when you acknowledged that they were younger than you. If John thought he was going to win whatever power play going on here he was sadly mistaken.

 

“I've been playing since I was three, dad insisted. I mean I like it, I like having a skill. And it's great going to recitals and competitions. Last winter, I performed at the Governor's mansion as part of a promotion to support the arts in schools.”

 

Bro hadn't noticed it before but somehow he and John ended up walking side by side. Bro looked at John and he noticed the teen was grinning at him. Bro thought John actually looked really cute, talking excitedly about something he's passionate about, and Bro thought it might just be him being narcissistic but he got the strong impression that John was bragging to him about his accomplishments. He found it endearing.

 

“That's really cool. Now you got my interest, I gotta hear you play.”

 

“You will! The music room is right behind this door.”

 

John opened the last door on the left in the hall they were in. John turned on the light and they entered the room.

 

“I don't think I've ever been in a house that had more rooms than this.”

 

John laughed softly. “Well it's not a house, it's a manor. There's four floors, including the cellar that mom turned into her wine cellar. I think it's over five hundred thousand square feet.”

 

“Well Rox always was the kind of person who wanted to live in a big place. Good for her.”

 

“My piano's over here.” John announced.

 

Bro looked over at where John was headed. Off to the side there was a stand with sheet music in front of another stand that held a violin in place. On the shelves along the wall there were several books of sheet music. In the center of the room close to the glass wall that faced the door there was a blue carpeted pillar that matched the carpeting in the room, with steps winding around it. On top of the pillar was a large black grand piano and a matching bench. On the piano there was an open book of sheet music.

 

“Damn.” Bro said when he saw John's piano. “That looks really expensive.”

 

“It is!” John confirmed. “I've had it for six years now. I use it for practice and to prepare for competitions and concerts I also have an electronic key board in my room, but that one's just for fun.”

 

John bounded up the steps that wound around the pillar effortlessly. Bro could see that in the music room there was nowhere for him to sit so he just continued to stand there watching as John sat on the bench. Before he began to play John rolled his neck, shoulders, and did some weird warm up exercises with his fingers. He cleared his throat then set about to see if his piano was in tune that the sheet music was on the right page that everything was just so before he began to play. His little rituals reminded him of his own process before he filmed a video for his site. He liked that John was so meticulous before beginning to play. It made him even more excited to hear him start.

 

John set his fingers down against the keys, his feet at the pedals. He straightened his back, his eyes focused on the sheet music and the keys. He started to play and as he played, he sang along with the music. His singing voice like his piano playing, was confident and practiced. His voice was clear and strong, and on pitch. He performed with expertise, never missed a step, his fingers tapped the keys so well he made it appear effortless. The melody was happy and upbeat, very reminiscent of the twenties.

 

Bro listened to the words John sang. “I just wanna have a good time, can't I have fun for the rest of my life? Just go where the wind blows.”

 

He watched John look over at him as he continued to sing,

 

“Here he comes here he caught my eye, and me made love through the moonlight, just go where the wind blows.”

 

The song was light, very airy. It was exactly what he imagined John would play when he looked at him. The song continued and Bro watched John really come alive. He had great stage presence, he was clearly enjoying himself and he never messed up with his playing or singing. It just made him want to see John on a real stage performing somewhere. Bro couldn't remember the last time he had seen someone so passionate about something. If John was like this when he was just practicing, Bro wanted to see what he was like actually performing.

 

When the song was over John took his hands off the keys and turned at an angle so that he could face Bro. Bro saw that John was looking at him expectantly, waiting to hear his opinion.

 

“That was great.” Bro told him.

 

John broke out into a toothy grin. “Thanks, I know right? That one's a favorite of mine.”

 

“Isn't that from the Great Gatsby soundtrack?” Bro asked, walking over to John's pillar.

 

“Heh heh, yeah. I also play the classics but I like to challenge myself by learning to play modern music and film soundtracks. You should hear my Skyfall.”

 

“I'd like to hear it.” Bro said, smiling up at him.

 

For a moment John looked surprised that he wanted to hear him play again. His surprise was replaced with eagerness. Bro smiled to himself as John continued to play song after song. Neither of them noticed Bro getting closer until John trailed off the end of the last measure of a song when Bro found himself sitting next to John, watching his fingers leave the keys. As the song ended, John placed his hands in his lap and looked at Bro. Bro thought that John didn't seem surprised that he had ended up sitting next to him on the piano bench. Their eyes locked, neither one of them saying anything. Bro thought that John was watching him with nervous expectation like he didn't know what to do, or what Bro was going to do. Bro wasn't sure himself. Listening to John play was an almost spiritual experience, if he went into that whole religious junk. John wasn't looking at him with fear or apprehension like he had earlier. He didn't look like he was expecting anything to happen either.

 

“It got uh, dark fast.” Bro said.

 

John blinked as if he was being startled out of a trance. Bro motioned behind John where the glass wall was. John turned to look at the now pitch black night sky that had replaced the Easter blue of the afternoon. Bro could see them in the reflection of the glass and he could see the night sky and the large trees that covered the house outside.

 

“Oh yeah. How long have we been in here huh? I guess I got preoccupied with playing. Why didn't you say anything?” John asked before he turned to face him.

 

“I was too busy paying attention to you.” Bro answered him.

 

John blushed at that. Bro couldn't believe it, he fucking blushed.

 

“I like the night, it’s better than ugly daylight that makes everything look garish. I'm glad mom and dad designed the music room to have a glass wall like the living room, it makes playing a lot more fun when I have a window to look out and inspire me.” John said, his fingers playing out a melody as he watched the sky become covered in grey clouds.

 

Without thinking Bro said, “Well I know how much you like windows.”

 

John's hands fell on the keys, smashing them accidentally. He turned around and stared at Bro.

 

“You know about that?” John asked, looking very panicky.

 

“Well it did happen at my apartment, and caught by my cameras, and I'd have to see it if it's on my website and I have to take it off the site.” Bro replied.

 

“So you did take it off the site. That statement, you wrote that?”

 

“Yeah, you read it?”

 

“I did. It...Actually made me feel a lot better, so thank you. For writing it.”

 

“You're welcome. So was that the first time you've looked at the site?”

 

“Uh, no. To tell you the truth, I've visited the site a few times before.”

 

Bro crossed his arms and grinned at him. “Oh yeah? See anything you like?”

 

John smirked “Now that you mention it, yeah. I like the smuppet ads.”

 

“You are joking.” Bro laughed.

 

“Nope, I actually like them, I think they're funny. So you saw the sex tape, huh?” John asked nervously.

 

“Well I wouldn't exactly call it a sex tape kid, but yeah, I saw it. And I gotta tell you, as someone who peddles smut for a living that wasn't bad for an amateur take.” Bro told him.

 

“Oh yeah?” John asked, smiling at him.

 

“Yeah. I mean I'm sure if you wanted to pursue a career in adult films you could make a go of it.” Bro said.

 

John tilted his head and looked up as if he were really considering it. “Huh, well there's a career choice my guidance counselor forget to mention.”

 

Bro couldn't help but laugh at that.

 

John looked at Bro at scooted closer. “Do you want to see me in a real adult film?” John asked.

 

“Uh...” Bro stalled not sure where this was headed.

 

John's expression was completely innocent, as was the way in which he worded the question. Before he could answer him the door opened.

 

The two of them turned towards the door where Rose was standing. “There you two are, I've been looking all over for you. Dinner's ready.”

 

Bro saw Rose take a moment to really look at them before her lips turned upward slightly into a smirk like she knew something more than what was going on was happening. But that couldn't be right, after all nothing more was happening here except what she could already see. Rose slowly backed out and walked away. Bro looked at John was standing and already walking down the steps. Bro followed him, careful not to stumble down the winding steps.

 

“Shouldn't there be a railing here?” Bro asked.

 

“A railing wouldn't look good on the pillar.” John said as they walked out of the music room.

 

Bro followed him down a few corridors until they came to a different dining room then the one they had breakfast in earlier. This was a smaller, more intimate room with a red and silver theme and larger, plusher chairs. They entered the warm, well-lit room where everyone else had already gathered. Rose looked up at them then glanced down demurely as if she knew something that everyone else didn't. But there was nothing to know. Rox was helping J. put plates of food on the table. They weren't in the room for more than a minute before Dave appeared at John's side and linked their arms together to pull John insistently towards his chair so that they could sit together. The only place Bro could sit was across from them, next to Rose.

 

While John was preoccupied with his plate of food Dave, who sat on John's left, kept glaring at Bro over his sunglasses throughout the meal, silently accusing Bro of something he didn't need to be accused of, especially when nothing had happened. Bro just ignored Dave's glaring.

 

“What did you think of John's piano playing?” J. asked Bro without bothering to look up.

 

Bro cut his steak as he answered, “He's very talented. His playing is passionate.”

 

He saw the small smile on John's face as John kept his eyes on his food.

 

“You should come to his next recital. I'm very proud of all John's accomplishments. His Nanna would have been proud as well. It's too bad she died in that joke shop.” J. said with a hint of sadness.

 

Bro didn't know what the hell he was supposed to say to that.

 

“Rose, you've been awfully quiet.” Bro said to his biological daughter. “How is everything?” Bro asked her, as a way to turn the conversation in another direction.

 

Rose glanced up at him, her eyes half concealed by her bangs. She finished chewing the bit of spinach leaves she had in her mouth before answering. He didn't know how she managed to eat without getting her black lipstick smudged.

 

“Well I'm doing well in school and I'm on the honor roll and taking A.P. Classes just like everyone else. My Love for Lovecraft club at school is getting more attention, and I bought more yarn to feed my knitting habit.” Rose told him.

 

Bro listened as she continued to explain that as the president of the club she was trying to organize a summer trip to visit Lovecraft's home. When she was finished, so was dinner. Everyone moved back into the living room, the one Dave and Bro came into when they first entered the manor.

 

Everyone sat down as Rox went to grab dessert. J. went out to smoke his after-dinner pipe. The whole thing was so fifties, so Norman Rockwell. Bro thought about how nice it was to just be here, and he thought about he usually did on Saturdays. Sit in front of his computer and jerk off to puppet porn eating a hot pocket after playing skating games on his XBOX. He never had a problem with spending his weekends like that before seeing as how he was older and his club hopping days were behind him.

 

And yet he couldn't help but think of how Rox had all this and he didn't even though they were the same age. It's not like he even wanted the whole house, husband and kids thing. He didn't. And he didn’t feel bad about not having it or not wanting to have it. He'd never feel bad about the choices he made and he didn't think any less about what he already had. But he had to concede that this was a way better thing to do on a Saturday night, and if he could he'd be happy to spend the rest of his Saturday's here if it meant he could watch John all he wanted from behind the security of his shades.

 

Rose pulled a book out from between the couch cushions and began to read it from her spot in the easy chair to the right of the couch. Bro could see the title in gold letters across the front. Anna Karenina. Not a bad book he remembered reading it himself at her age. From the way she took her time to turn the pages, he guessed she enjoyed the story, seeing as how she was halfway through the book.

 

Bro sat on the opposite end of the couch she was on. Dave sat to the left of Bro in the smaller sofa John sat next to Dave on Dave's right side, holding the remote and channel flipping in an attempt to find something to watch. Dave decided to switch seats with John so he could act as a human buffer to keep Bro from getting closer to John. Dave had snuggled up close to John, his head rested on John's shoulder his arm wrapped around John's middle and his legs on top of John's legs. Bro felt a twinge of jealousy. After all being John's best friend for years accrued him a lot of points to be affectionate with him all he wanted. And right now Dave was milking it for all it was worth. From the relaxed position they were in and ho w John was watching the tv with no sign of discomfort Bro guessed that they were both used to this level of affection, that it was something that happened often and they were comfortable with it. He didn't think he'd even seen Dave cuddling with his own girlfriend like that.

 

 

Rox came back into the living room carrying a silver tray with six dessert goblets with silver spoons. J. came back in and took off his loafers by the door. Rox went around the room letting everyone grab their dessert. Bro examined the crystal goblet and sterling silver spoon. This looked exactly like the kind of thing Rox would have, and it looked way too expensive to even be touching. After thanking Rox everyone ate their peach and plum parfaits in relative silence as they watched a rerun of Parks and Recreation.

 

“This parfait is awesome.” Dave said.

 

Bro noticed that Dave was still snuggled up close to John and John didn't seem at all bothered by it.

 

“Mmm, it is. Rox, you've out done yourself.” J. said to his wife.

 

Rox smiled at him before watching the tv again. “I'm happy with how they turned out. They say that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach but I like to think that applies to all genders.”

 

“I wouldn’t know, I've never been able to get a girlfriend with my cooking. Then again, I'm not that great of a cook.” Rose commented.

 

Bro kept glancing over at John. The two of them hadn't said a word to each other since they were interrupted in the music room. Every now and then he could see John taking furtive glances at him but there was no way it meant what Bro wanted it to mean.

 

“Rox, I don't think you've ever told me how you met Mister Bro Strider.” J. said after dessert was finished.

 

Oh HELL NO, Bro thought.

 

“I told you we met in college. But you're right, I never shared the details.” Rox said.

 

Please no, Bro thought.

 

“You munchkins want to hear a story?” Rox asked, standing up to gather everyone's dishes.

 

“Yeah I mean why not?” John said, shifting to get more comfortable.

 

This isn’t happening, Bro thought.

 

After putting the dishes back on the silver tray Rox put the tv on mute and stood in the middle of the room and began to talk.

 

“So we met in college, it was our second year when we really became aware of each other. Now I was a club kid, always hanging out in bars, flirting with whoever in nightclubs to get free drinks. I started letting my grades slip around the second semester and my parents decided they weren't going to pay my tuition because I was being irresponsible. Smart girl like me, I couldn't find any jobs for my major that weren't internships, or low paying part time manual labor jobs that wouldn't be able to pay my tuition costs. ”

 

While she told the story, Bro tried looking everywhere but where Rox was standing.

 

“I didn't want to, but I ended up working as a pole dancer at an underground club. This was a real hole in the wall joint near my college, but the tips were good. One night this fucker comes in,” She gestured towards Bro, everyone looked at him before turning their attention back to Rox “I find out he's there to take over for the bartender who was a friend of his from one of his film classes. He ended up working behind the bar for two months. Since I knew him from school, I didn't go out of my way to interact with him. Around the third month we ended up talking after getting off work around the same time. We didn't talk in school, but we did get to know each other very well when we walked home together.” Rox said.

 

“Then what happened?” Dave asked.

 

“Well one night we both ended up getting sloppy drunk to celebrate the start of spring break. And well, two stupidly drunk twenty year-olds together, nothing good can come out of that. After we broke into a 1987 golden El Camaro one thing led to another and nine months later the twins were born.”

 

“I was conceived in a Camaro?” Rose asked incredulously.

 

“We, Rose. We were conceived in a Camaro.” Dave corrected her.

 

Rose rolled her eyes at Dave's technicality.

 

Rox sighed and rolled her wrists before speaking. “Anyway, back then we were still in college but we were both struggling with hospital bills, tuition, and we were too broke to afford school and kids. In fact we could only afford to take care of one kid each. We signed a bunch of legal papers declaring our sole guardianship over one child for one parent. After we dropped out of school I stayed in New York with Rose while Bro took Dave down to Houston.”

 

There was a lull in the conversation as the story's conclusion settled over them.

 

“Well if that isn't a real life fairy tale.” Dave snarked.

J. adjusted his hat and leaned back. Rox went into the kitchen and came back with a glass of red wine. The teens weren't saying anything, and the tv had been unmuted. Bro pulled his hat down as far as it would go with his pointy shades on. It was bad enough having actually lived that, but having it brought up again was just embarrassing. He was glad Rox left out the parts about the act only lasting a couple minutes, and how he cried after wards and Rox puked on his chest. Rox sat next to J. and sipped her wine.

“Rox?” J. asked, sitting up again.

 

“Yes darling?” Rox answered.

 

Bro could hear the slight slur in her words.

 

“Why didn't you and Bro ever make a go of a romantic relationship?” J. asked.

 

Rox sighed, not unkindly but she sighed all the same. “Well we both wanted different things out of life. I wanted a career and to be wife and mother. And he wanted to have sex with men.”

 

She had been so blunt but it was the truth.

 

“Hmm. Well I can see where that might been issue.” J. conceded, nodding his head understandingly.

 

Rox hummed into her drink.

 

Bro pushed up his hat then fished out his phone. One forty in the morning. How the hell did these people live without clocks or any way to determine what time it was? It made him uncomfortable to not be completely aware of the time. Dave is the same way, so he doesn't know why he's not constantly checking his phone like he usually does when there's no other way for him to track the time. He guessed Dave didn't feel the need to check his phone when he was busy cuddling up to John.

 

"Well thank you for having us over, but we should start heading back now." Bro said to J. and Rox.

 

"But you just got here!" Rox complained.

 

Bro stared at her before telling her "It's one-forty in the morning."

 

"Is it? Well then, you must be eager to get home." J. said.

 

"Yeah, to tell you the truth. Come on Dave, we're leaving." Bro said.

 

"Why? It's not like we have plans for tomorrow. We both know we've got a whole big day of nothing to do tomorrow." Dave complained.

 

"Dave, now." Bro commanded.

 

Dave huffed then detached from John. Everyone stood up as goodbyes. Bro didn't know how to feel about being with people who had no qualms with hugs and generally being affectionate. The Striders are a cold people.

 

"You two should come over more often, we're sorry we didn't invite you over sooner." Rox told Bro.

 

"I like your place, Rox. It's fantastic honestly." Bro told her.

 

"Have a safe drive home, you two." J. added.

 

"Thanks J." Dave said.

 

"Goodnight you two." Rose called as she ascended the stairs, waving to them with her free hand.

 

Bro waved goodnight to her as he opened the front door. J. and Rox had gone back to the living room while John stood by the door.

 

"Sorry we didn't get a chance to really talk." John said to Bro.

 

"It's cool, I liked listening to you play, you got talent, kid." Bro told him.

 

John frowned for a second then switched to a grin. "I'll see you two later."

 

"Bye John." Dave pushed past Bro to give John another hug.

 

Bro rolled his eyes as John laughed and hugged Dave right back. In the car they rode back to the apartment in silence. When they got back inside the apartment, Dave spoke up.

 

"Rose tells me you and John looked pretty cozy in the music room." Dave said as he took off his shoes.

 

"Rose's mother is a drunken former stripper, you gonna believe what the daughter says?" Bro asks.

 

"So you weren't getting cozy with a seventeen year old?" Dave asked.

 

"No. But I could see that you were." Bro replied.

 

Dave shrugged then went to the cabinet. "He's my best friend, it's cool to be affectionate with him."

 

Bro scoffed "And your girlfriend doesn't have a problem with you almost dry humping her cousin."

 

Dave opened a bag of Doritos.

 

"No, she doesn't." Dave said.

 

"So what, I can't be affectionate with him if I want to?" Bro asked. "Not that I want to." He quickly added.

 

"Ew, no you're like a hundred." Dave said in between bites.

 

"I'm not that old. What the hell were you doing in the living room? You looked all possessive, if you were a dog I'd assumed you'd peed on his leg to mark him." Bro joked.

 

Dave looked away and didn't say anything. After a while it hit Bro.

 

"Oh my God, did you actually fucking pee on his leg?" Bro asked.

 

"It was one time, he had a jellyfish sting and we were at the beach during summer break in eighth grade." Dave said, his voice going up towards the end, his words coming out rushed.

 

"Oh my God." Bro said, laughing.

 

"I'm going to bed." Dave snapped, munching chips on the way to his room.

 

Bro laughed so hard he ended up coughing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading, I do hope I get some feedback. I think I'll keep it in this perspective, as it's easier for me to write this way.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading. I hope I get some feedback. If it isn't obvious, I'm new at writing and I don't have a beta, so there's likely to be a lot of mistakes. I think my goal is to write a very long brojohn story that people will get invested in. My dream is for artists to like my work, and since the brojohn tag is a mess on tumblr, I'm hoping it will inspire more brojohn art.


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